My 20 Favorite Albums of 5765 (Part IX & X)

The final four!
#4 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

Remember these guys?  This was an easy one.  It's been a little while since I've really sat down and listened to them, but this album was probably the defining record of the last year.  I've never gotten sick of it and the songs remain remarkably relevant. I still get excited when I hear one of them on the radio.  Sure, their inevitable popularity has created some negative backlash, but I think for the most part it's pretty difficult to say with a straight face that you don't think this is good music.  Listening to it now for the 2304958th time makes me wish I could go back and hear it again for the first time again. 

Mp3: Bloc Party - Pioneers 

#3 Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
I'm gonna have a hard time describing this one.  I think it's truly brilliant and I've listened to it more than any other album over the last year, but I don't know if I really have the words to describe why it's so good.  While there are a couple songs like 'Black' and 'For Real' that stand out as singles, the whole album really only works when listened to as a whole.  Hearing the tracks all together is like hearing the ebbs and flows of life being described to you.  There's something about that imperfect, distressed voice singing familiar themes over the jazzy, pop-twinged Americana that just hits me in the right spot every time I put it on.  Perhaps it's best left unexplained.

MP3: Okkervil River - For Real

#2 Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
These are perfect pop songs.  Each track on this album you can picture playing in a background of a trailer for a movie you want to see.  But one of those movies you really only wanna see because the soundtrack's so good.  I know they're all from Toronto and Montreal or whatever, but this album, even more so than their older stuff (which, admittedly, I got into only after listening to this) has a distinct New York feel.  Maybe we've been conditioned to believe that every relevant contemporary love story has to happen here or something, but these are most epic, emotional and heartfelt songs I've ever heard.  And I couldn't end this without saying that Amy Milan has, far and away, my favorite female singing voice.  And that 'Your Ex-lover is Dead' is my second most played iTunes song ever.

MP3: Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead

#1 Cloud Cult - Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus
I have raved and raved about these guys to anyone that would listen from the second I first heard them.  I've never met anyone who thought this album was anything short of amazing.  It's the complete package.  The lyrics are poignant and touching, and while the songs are relatively gentle, they never feel sleepy or reserved. They combine the vocals, guitar, strings and electronic beats all perfectly.  The album sprawls over such a huge stretch of human emotion, but all the songs keep a universal theme of hope in the face of uncertainty as to why we're all here on earth.  Very hippie, but legit.  Obviously, there isn't a bad track on the disc, but a lot of albums on this list don't have bad tracks.  I'm confident in saying that there is not a song on this album that is anything short of a masterpiece.  And I mean that as sincerely as anything I've ever written.  This is the best album of the last year by a landslide.  Anybody with ears is doing themselves a great disservice by not bringing this music into their lives.

MP3: Cloud Cult - Living on the Outside of Your Skin

Previously:
#'s 5-6
#'s 7-8
#'s 9-12
#'s 13-14
#'s 15-16
#'s 17-18
#'s 19-20
My 2004 Picks

Comments

[Honey]

Right On with the Stars!!!!!! Wow, I was very surprised by your #2 choice, but what a great choice it is! I couldn't agree more with your review and they just don't get enough credit as far as I can tell. Love them, can't wait to see them live.

[djlp]

u need a listen to editors and art brut and elbow and tom vek and magic numbers and hal and engineers
even the new weller is better than your top 10 exp maximo

[Jeff]

I've listened to all of those bands plenty, and praised a few of them at times, but none of their albums had enough lasting appeal to oust any of the ones I've listed.

That said, Editors and Tom Vek were prolly the last two albums I left off the list. I just got bored with them a bit too quick.

[J]

Despite being a burgeoning Canuckphile, I have yet to even try out the Stars CD. I choked on their live act a couple times, and didn't feel like coughing up the dough. Someday I'm going to have to find out what I'm missing.

When CC was in town, I picked up their back catalogue. Though Hippo is still my #1, too, They Live on the Sun is quite a kick in the gut. Rawer, it has two bonkers-insane covers ("Estupido", "Shortenin' Bread") and one of the most demented liner notes I've ever read.

[djlp]

fair enough
just one man opinion
and athlete too

look out for the changes from chi
and aberdeen city from boston i think

[Colm]

We had the Stars over in here in Dublin, Ireland a while back. Interesting people to hang out with.

http://www.infactah.com/2005/09/stars-sugar-club-friday-september-9th.html

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